Words from the pulpit of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches, and other significant messages.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

A Matter of Practice

I want to
talk about maps. Imagine looking at a map of the world. Recognize the many
different colors of the countries andtake notice of the bold lines that separate these countries. Now imagine
looking at a topographical map. There are no colors identifying boundaries.
There are no bold lines creating separateness. Some of you may be sci-fi fans.
You might wonder if the people of another planet, millions and millions miles
away, might now be on a mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new
life and civilizations. If they came here, what would they see?No lines between this spot of land and
another miles away. Just a blue-green sphere, with clouds spinning in the light
of the sun. And when they met the people, they would surely regard us all as
one people. One species of earthlings.

They would
probably be astonished to learn about the imaginary lines. They might be
confused when people within these lines are suffering from a famine, while the
people within the other lines over there have so much food that they are
throwing it away. They might ask “Why don’t you redistribute food to where it
is needed?” We’d try to explain.

Our
explanations may make some kind of sense when you see the lines on a map. It
doesn’t make much sense if you look at the lines on the faces. A philosopher
named Emmanuel Lavinas said that “most philosophy began with the wrong
question.”It started with Who am I? But
he said“that wasn’t the first question
at all. Where we begin, as we make our way through life, is by seeing another’s
face and recognizing in it one’s own. More basic than the question Who Am I? is
What is the relationship between me and this other, this face I behold?” It’s
several months before newborn babies are interested in mirrors. But well before
that, they are fascinated by other people’s faces. Sometimes even before they
can focus their eyes. It is as if we know from birth that our connections to
other people shape us, make us, and are us.

What is the
relationship between these faces -- the faces of our guests -- and our own?
Looking into another’s face, I can see laughter, age, youth, interest, anxiety,
and curiosity. Take a moment to contemplate the faces. Look at the people
steadily with open eyes and open hearts. To look into another’s face is to
recognize the essential absurdity of those lines on the map. What does it mean
that some of these faces dwell within some of those lines? What significance
can it have, in comparison with all that is within those eyes and those smiles?

When Lavinas
counsels us to begin with the face, he is asserting something very simple that
we know to be true: we are all connected. Anything that tells us otherwise is
an illusion. There is a word for the illusion that we are not connected:
alienation.Meaning someone who is
foreign, someone who is a stranger, someone who is not part of the community.
When we experience alienation we feel totally separate not affected by others,
having no effect on them.

When we
forget our interconnectedness, we separate ourselves from our community. We
feel alienated, a sad and destructive feeling. One opposite of alienation is
connection. Another opposite is Unitarian Universalism. Knowing that we are all
unified, in unity, is part of being Unitarian. Knowing that we are universally
connected and intertwined is part of our being Universalist.

Love is the
antidote for alienation. Love is the cure. The kind of love we are talking
about is the kind Jesus meant when he said love your neighbor as yourself. It’s
not about being in love with your neighbor, being fond of your neighbor, liking
your neighbor, It’s not about feeling at all. It’s about knowing that we are
not separate. The fact of our being neighbors, of our sharing this planet, of
being parts of the same interdependent web, makes us one. Love is knowing that
and acting upon that knowledge.Love is
also about honoring each person’s fundamental rights. And doing what we can to
ensure that every person has access to those rights and harness their power to
live thriving, fulfilled lives. That kind of love transcends borders and leaps
over boundaries.

Our task
today is to embrace the Guest at Your table program offered by the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee. The UU Service Committee is an organization
that certainly deserves our support; they have been active on the front lines
of world wide social justice issues since the days of Nazi Germany. The work of
the UUSC isn’t charity. It isn’t crisis relief. The fundamental task is to show
that each of us are all connected. That the barriers we erect between us are
fiction and that we must work together toward our mutual liberation.

By
celebrating Guest at Your Table, you are helping nurture a spirit of gratitude
and "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations." Guest at Your
Table fosters understanding and awareness of UUSC's human rights work. Guest at
Your Table is an annual tradition in which congregation members learn about
several people with whom UUSC is working. This year, we are featuring people
who have empowered others to realize their human rights. These people are your
“guests,” and we ask you to share your blessings with them to support our
shared mission.

We're hoping
that as many of you as possible will support them by becoming a member have
offered you what you need to participate in creating wholeness and removing
unnecessary barriers. I want to tell you about one specific table. My childhood
kitchen table was routinely graced by people with disabilities, in emotional
distress, hungry, homeless, struggling with addiction, or gay and lesbian folk
all challenged by an inhospitable world. I watched my family welcome everyone
to the table and as folks sat a while they were treated with dignity and were
offered support, fellowship, and love. I witnessed compassion for others,
generosity, understanding, acceptance of differences, and giving voice to the
“underdog” through the behaviors of my parents and family. I easily learned to
adopt these behaviors which have become expressions of my faith today and my
love for and belief in Unitarian Universalism as a saving faith.

This personal
reflection will help you understand why I feel I am among friends here in this
Congregation. I easily identify with the culture of this Congregation that
allows us to look beyond ourselves. I’ve witnessed a Haitian minister pick up
donated clothing for his ministry here and in Haiti; we collect food for El
Sol; we package food for hungry immigrant families; we stand beside Baptists,
Catholics, Episcopalians, and Methodists to create change in our communities;
we are beginning a program that allow us to be faithful stewards of the earth;
and we will soon begin our work with families that are homeless in our
community.As your minister, typically
my words are a call to action, to challenge us, but today my words are to
remind this Congregation that it has set the welcome table and you have
welcomed and fed countless individuals and families who do not look like us,
worship like us, but are connected to us. Yes our work shall continue and grow.
But you should know you already understand how to reach across boundaries, how
to look in the face of another and see yourself and most importantly you have
the will and recognize the moral imperative to respond. I don’t doubt for a
second that you won’t continue to reach and join the Unitarian Universalist
service committee in widening our circle of support, of love, of courage.

I bring you a
poem by Thich Nhat Hanh:

Our true
home is in the present moment.

To live in the present moment is a miracle.

The miracle is not to walk on water.

The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the
present moment,

to appreciate the peace and beauty that are
available now.

Peace is all around us

in the world and in nature -

and within us -

in our bodies and our spirits.

Once we learn to touch this peace,

we will be healed and transformed.

It is not a matter of faith;

it is a matter of practice.

I chose these
words from Thich Nhat Hanh because I love how he points out that mindfully
taking the time to touch that place of connection -- that place of peace -- is
both healing and transformative. And, he goes on to tell us, it is not really a
matter of faith so much as it is a matter of practice! Let us look in the faces
of our brothers and sisters and with the outstretched hand of human fellowship
and practice and practice. Let us share our blessings.

May it be so.

A Matter of
Practice, a sermon delivered at
1stUUPB by the Rev. CJ McGregor on Nov 3, 2013.